The new user guide

Franz · 2009-11-09 16:57:29

Once again, I can be glad to make an announcement of a part of the new site: the user guide.

What it will be called in the end, has been subject of, uhm, intense discussion, and the decision isn't final yet, so don't nail me on this.

Right now there is also the old PunBB documentation - a rather basic piece of documentation. This was actually planned to be extended with the release of v1.3, but - well, you know how that went... Well, if you are familiar with the current FluxBB wiki, you should know that it only contains some basic information on setting up a FluxBB forum, common problems and developer instructions. Parts of it are outdated.

So what will this "user guide" be? It's pretty simple. We want to include the end-users, too. And yes, the "end-users" of this software are not just administrators installing and modifying their forum (although they are users too, obviously), but rather those posting on and using these boards. Now, we don't want to kick out all of the developers - this information is still going to be included - however, we want to increase our documentation efforts and also include the end users.

Right now we are planning on splitting up the guide into five main sections:

"Installing", providing information on how to install, upgrade or migrate to FluxBB
"Setting up", where you will find some quick and easy tutorials for kickstarting forum projects, providing lists with the most important settings etc.
"Using", which will give you instructions on the most common usage examples of this software
"Moderating", with information on how to manage things like reports and bans, but also post moderation tasks
"Administrating", featuring information about administrative tasks like keeping your board up-to-date etc.

As mentioned above, sorting out the already existing developer documentation will be taken care of later on.

The problem with all of this is that we have a lot of projects and ideas running that need to be finished before the aforementioned server move. So that's why I set up a fresh DokuWiki install at http://lie2815.co.cc/fluxbb/wiki to keep things separated cleanly (obviously only until the server move; the wiki is going to stay integrated into the site). If you visit that link, you will notice there's nothing more than a more or less detailed table of contents.

Here's the plan: In an open source project, the aim should always be to let the community participate in as many areas as possible. It's a vital part of keeping the community alive by submitting patches, discussing the future path of the project and, of course, documentation. As we know that we have a lot of users who are very experienced in using FluxBB. So we would like to encourage you to step forward and work on the new FluxBB user guide. We don't want to get rid of all the work, but we would be very grateful for some help.

Please stick to the structure that's already given, but feel free to improve it by adding your own ideas and points that we may have forgotten.

ade · 2009-11-09 17:17:21

good jobs

Mpok · 2009-11-13 09:08:00

lie2815 wrote:

In an open source project, the aim should always be to let the community participate in as many areas as possible.

Pleased to hear...

irmikeyb · 2009-11-14 07:12:47

I just wanted to point out what I think was just overlooked. On your wiki you states:

For this purpose, this wiki is split up into four sections covering the most important administrative and other tasks.

But in this post you state:

Right now we are planning on splitting up the guide into five main sections.

Should the site match to five as there are five categories listed below it?

Plazzmex · 2009-11-14 13:18:44

irmikeyb,
He meant five. it's a mistake

Franz · 2009-11-14 17:13:24

irmikeyb wrote:

I just wanted to point out what I think was just overlooked. On your wiki you states:
For this purpose, this wiki is split up into four sections covering the most important administrative and other tasks.
But in this post you state:
Right now we are planning on splitting up the guide into five main sections.
Should the site match to five as there are five categories listed below it?

Oops, you're right. Fixed. Thank you

Garry Hopkins · 2010-01-08 12:04:09

Just went through with this.

Forums

#1 2009-11-09 16:57:29

The new user guide

#2 2009-11-09 17:17:21

Re: The new user guide

#3 2009-11-13 09:08:00

Re: The new user guide

#4 2009-11-14 07:12:47

Re: The new user guide

#5 2009-11-14 13:18:44

Re: The new user guide

#6 2009-11-14 17:13:24

Re: The new user guide

#7 2010-01-08 12:04:09

Re: The new user guide

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